Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I love mid-century style pink bathrooms and decided to scan some images of them from old decorating magazines I have so I could share them here (click on images to see them full size in all their pink glory!). You can also see many more pictures of pink bathrooms at Pam's "Save the Pink Bathrooms" Flickr group.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

We've agreed that we need a home with at least 1000 sq. ft. of living space and we decided to focus on trying to find a mid-century ranch house. We personally prefer the style of mid-50s and 'early '60s ranch homes, plus they tend to have more room, the ceilings are higher and the layouts are more open. But the larger size also means that they're a bit more pricey so that's limited our options.

Finding an affordable ranch home in a decent location that's safe from flooding won't be easy but we've expanded our search. Below are some examples of wonderful mid-century ranch homes in the area. Most of them need some work since they've been modified over the years. Only the last three are for sale but the first house caught my eye and I had to snap a pic of it. If it was for sale it would probably be too pricey for us.

Will one of these be my new home? Only time and bidding wars will tell!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

When we first started looking at homes for sale we noticed a lot of really cute mid-40s and early '50s homes that were available.

These houses were often in nice locations (which often meant out of the local "flood zone") and some still had original features. But they were also a bit pricey and very small. On average they only had about 700-800 sq. ft. of room. Occasionally the ceilings were also rather low, which was hard on my 6 ft. 5 inch husband.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Our house-hunting journey started last week after my husband and I received money from the sale of his father's home. My father-in-law owned an incredible Eichler house in Marin County in California, but after he passed away due to complications from cancer last year the family followed his wishes to sell the house and divide the money between his two sons and second wife. My husband really wanted to keep the house in the family and wished he could have purchased it, but unfortunately we just didn’t have the means to buy the Eichler home for ourselves.

Photos of my father-in-law's Eichler Home

After saying goodbye to the fabulous Eichler house we set out on our own journey to find a mid-century home that would fit our budget.

Home prices in California have dropped dramatically in the last year due to the troubled economy. In some areas prices are down as much as 75% and lower than they've been in decades. But we're not alone in our quest for a house and we're competing with many other first time home buyers right now as well as wealthy flippers in the area who are trying to build up their real estate portfolios.

One of the most disappointing aspects of our journey so far is coming across a fabulous older home with it's original kitchen and many original fixtures intact only to be outbid by someone who plans to gut the house and tear out the kitchen so they can replace it with ugly cabinets and granite counter tops.

We hope to find a mid-century home with much of it's original charm intact and restore it. We're not interested in tearing it down and replacing it with a McMansion. Unfortunately we seem to be in the minority, but we're trying not to get discouraged. We know our home is out there somewhere in some long forgotten post-war suburban development and we're determined to find it!

About Mid-Century Living

Welcome to Mid-Century Living! My name is Kimberly and I'm a longtime admirer of mid-century design. My husband and I recently bought our first home and it's a beautiful old custom built 1954 atomic ranch house in Napa, CA. I plan to share my adventures in home restoration and remodeling as well as various decorating tips, gardening and landscaping ideas, recipes and anything else that falls under the banner of "Mid-Century" or "Living." I'll also be writing about local issues and various things that interest me as a new home owner. I hope you'll enjoy your stop here!